The forest was burning.
Not in the poetic way, with metaphors about rage and desire. No, this was actual fire—red-orange hellfire licking up through broken trees, devouring roots, and spewing black smoke into the air like a teenager vaping emotional trauma.
"Just once," Juno said as she ducked behind a charred log, "can we go on a mission that doesn't involve a raging inferno?"
"Define raging," Liam muttered, eyes locked on the source of the chaos ahead.
A Wane Vector stood at the center of it all, tall and cloaked in crimson-tinted armor, fire dancing in a controlled spiral around their outstretched fingers. The sigil on their chest pulsed in sync with the flames a spiral broken through a triangle. Same as the others. Only this time, they weren't just cleaning up a corpse.
This one was alive.
And smiling.
"Identification?" Rhea's voice crackled through the comm.
Liam narrowed his eyes, instincts prickling. "Not yet. They haven't moved."
"I don't like it," Nova said. She was crouched beside him, her lightweave cloak flickering faintly against the glow. "It's too quiet."
"They're waiting," Kairo said.
"For what?"
"For him," a voice called from across the flames.
Liam froze.
That voice didn't belong to the Vector in armor.
It belonged to someone he hadn't heard in two years. Someone he thought he'd never see again. Someone who had left him bleeding in the ruins of the Haldran facility with a kiss and a threat.
Eira Voss.
She stepped out from behind the Wane operative like a shadow slicing the world in half. Her long coat fluttered behind her, scorched at the edges. Her eyes—sharp, cold, familiar locked onto Liam like a sniper scope.
He stood without thinking.
"Eira."
"Liam," she said, with a smile that made his pulse spike. "Still brooding? Or did someone finally teach you how to flirt without looking like you're in pain?"
"I'm trying sarcasm therapy," he said. "Results are mixed."
Juno popped her head up from behind the log. "Hey! Ex alert. Everyone act emotionally unstable!"
"Too late," Nova muttered, tension thick in her voice.
Eira stepped closer, hands raised not in surrender, but like someone approaching a wild animal she knew intimately.
"I'm not here to fight," she said. "Well… not unless you insist."
"Funny. Most Wane agents show up with less flirting and more fireballs."
"I came alone."
Liam raised a brow. "You? The woman who once blew up a comm tower just to send me a breakup message?"
"Technical miscommunication," she said, utterly unapologetic.
He stepped forward. Nova grabbed his arm instinctively.
"Don't," she whispered. "You know who she is now."
"I knew who she was before," Liam said, gently shaking off her grip.
Eira tilted her head. "They told you, didn't they? About Project Haldran. About him."
"I don't need you to validate my trauma, thanks."
"No," she said, voice dropping. "But you need to understand what's coming."
The fire around them began to die, as if retreating into the dirt itself. The Wane operative behind her stepped back and vanished into the treeline without a word.
"I came to warn you," Eira continued. "They're not hunting Catalysts to destroy them anymore."
Liam stiffened. "What, then?"
"They're trying to merge them. Fuse powers. Stack anomalies. And you"
"Let me guess," he said. "I'm the final piece."
She took another step forward, close enough now that he could see the faint scar on her cheek. The one he'd given her. The one she never covered.
"They'll come for you, Liam. Everyone will. Because you're not just the Catalyst anymore."
She leaned in slightly, voice so low only he could hear.
"You're the Singularity Trigger."
Behind him, Nova's breath caught. Juno muttered, "That sounds super cool and super horrible."
Rhea finally chimed in. "We need to extract. Now."
Eira backed away, but her eyes never left Liam's.
"You still dream of me, don't you?" she said.
He didn't answer.
She smiled, just a little, and whispered, "I do."
Then she was gone.
Melted into smoke. Flames gone. Forest still.
Liam stared at the empty space she left behind.
Nova came up beside him, jaw tight. "You didn't deny it."
"What?"
"When she said you dream of her."
He didn't answer right away.
Because he didn't lie to his team.
And the truth?
The dreams were getting worse.
And in every one of them… he wasn't saving Eira.
He was following her.